Serious replies only: Uhura screamed at Hanoch because...

.

 

Henoch was a bad dude who just exuded evil vibes, strong enough for Uhura to feel them. He made McCoy, Kirk and Mulhall writhe in agony, too. I'm glad he got wacked at the end of the episode.

 

You know how Henoch immobilized Kirk and Ann Mulhall on the bridge by giving them pain? It was along those lines, but more acute and sudden, causing Uhura to scream.

The shock-cut to Uhura was a very effective way to punch up the sequence. Star Trek didn't usually go in much for "cool" editing tricks, but when they did, I usually liked it.

 

The "Return to Tomorrow" script isn't too much help. There's this content from the November 22, 1967, "2nd Revised Final Draft:"

SCENE 105 CONTINUED:

KIRK
Prepare a hypo, Bones. The
fastest and deadliest poison
to Vulcans. Spock's consciousness
is gone, but we must kill his
body too... the thing in it.

SCENE 106 OMITTED

SCENE 107 INT. BRIDGE - ANGLE ON UHURA

In the midst of a PIERCING, SHUDDERING SCREAM

SCENE 108 WIDER ANGLE - INCLUDING HENOCH (SPOCK)

Not touching Uhura, but standing over her as the SCREAM
dies into a gasp and Uhura slumps against her panel,
trembling. Then Henoch (Spock) crosses to the command
position where he seats himself in the command chair,
where a blank-faced Christine stands at his side. He
turns to Sulu at the helm.

HENOCH (SPOCK)
Shall I make an example of you,
too, Helm? Take us out of orbit.
A course for Earth.

SULU
(hitting controls)
Look for yourself. The ship
won't respond! Nothing works!

In b.g., the elevator doors snap open. Kirk and Anne
enter, with McCoy slightly behind them. He'll have
his hypo ready, but hidden by Kirk and Anne crossing
in ahead. Henoch (Spock) doesn't bother to turn. Just
before they reach him:

HENOCH (SPOCK
Pain, Kirk! Exquisite pain.
(turns to Anne)
And you, my dear...

Kirk drops like he is pole-axed, writhing, GASPING
as if his body begs to scream out the pain, but is un-
able. Henoch (Spock) has pointed at Anne, freeing her,
shuddering, but before he can assign her punishment,
Sulu has been pushed beyond endurance and whirls out of
his seat to attack Henoch (Spock) but immediately suf-
fers the same as Kirk. Anne, as Henoch (Spock) takes
his attention for an instant from her, has crumpled
into a trembling ball on the deck.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
So, for what it's worth, the hard cut to Uhura was scripted by the writer, but not really explained. It wasn't something cooked up on set by the director.

It's conceivable that the omitted Scene 106 originally had some relevant or explanatory content before it got deleted from the script in some earlier scrip version. If anyone has the Story Outline, the Revised Story Outline, the First Draft teleplay, the Second Draft teleplay, or the (first, unrevised) Final Draft teleplay, it may provide an answer to this mystery.

 

I took it as he made her see something. Henoch was "aware of every thought" on the bridge, and no doubt projected something utterly horrible into Uhura's mind. Something so unthinkable, we can't even imagine. It was enough to make her scream in bloody terror. I bought it. I don't think it was any physical pain, that wasn't her reaction. It was something else. Something worse....

 

Yeah, count me in with the he mentally showed her something that made her scream

 

That's cruel and unusual punishment.

 

Maybe he subjected her to an intense pain or another episode of Open All Hours or Last of the Summer Wine?
JB

 

In the spirit of "serious replies only," perhaps he merely showed her a manifestation of his true nature. How monstrous he really is.

 

Look, they had her let loose with a blood curdling scream without explaining. Hanoch can do incredible things with his mind. So he did something horrific to make Uhura suffer, and it adds a lot to the sense of wild uncontrollable danger that we don't know what it was specifically. It gets us wracking our brains wondering what could be that bad. It works.

 

Maybe the reason we didn't see why Uhura was screaming was that it was something very personal to her?
JB

 

Probably because it's a) more effective to imply and let the audience use their imagination and b) the network standards wouldn't let them do anything too disturbing

 

Maybe this is what Henoch really looked like....

 

Strange, when I was a kid the teachers used to call the idiot children half a brain on a stick and yet here a full brain on a stick seems to be a dangerous intelligent alien life form! I knew them teachers were telling me lies!
JB

 

Poor, alien brain couldn't defeat John Agar and his axe.

 

That is just awesome.

 

Yes, a 'classic' (?) sci-fi movie, The Brain From Planet Arous.